Ironclad Games Announces New F2P MOBA Sins of a Dark Age

I must say that the makers of Sins of a Solar Empire are terribly unimaginative when it comes to naming their games, but I have found little else to be annoyed at from Ironclad. The 4X Real Time Strategy (RTS) powerhouse of a game that was Sins of a Solar Empire (with some games stretching for days, yes – plural) revived the great old space strategy genre and Ironclad wish to use their knowledge gained from developing this game to power a new kind of RTS and field-combat hybrid game. You may have heard of several Massive Online Battle games (MOBA) such as League of Legends, Guild Wars or DotA. Yet, Ironclad is on the verge of doing something that only a few games have tried to do: make a real time strategy game in which players either control their armies from above – like most RTSs – or lead the armies in battle on the field a Heroes – like most action Role Playing Games (Mount & Blade comes to mind) called Sins of a Dark Age.

In Sins of a Dark Age, players either choose the Commander role to supply minions and make grand strategies or the Hero role in which quick-fire decisions and a physical presence in the battlefield are required. It is as yet unsure as to how the players will work together (beyond using obvious tools like chats and PMs). From the developer’s website:-

Sins of a Dark Age is a totally new and unique strategy experience that combines elements of the Traditional RTS and the Action RTS. We took the best parts of each, innovated on both, and added our own twists and turns resulting in something unlike any other strategy game. Despite all this we still feel it is remarkably accessible for new and veteran players alike.

We’ll be revealing progressively more information about the game over the next few months as we lead up to the beta this summer. One thing we learned from Sins of a Solar Empire is that the year-long beta and open player feedback is incredibly important and was critical in building it into the success it became. I remember people openly trashing our pride and joy and it was very painful – but it was necessary. We listened and changes were made. Hopefully, it won’t be that bad this time and it won’t take as long but we are willing to go through the same process (or worse) again if necessary. As you may have guessed we don’t have a release date – it’ll be done when it’s done.

So it will take a while for the game to go gold and be accessible to all. However, I am very much inclined to believe that Ironclad will make a successful game out of this. I cannot wait!